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The extent of Jesuit influence exacerbated past papal mistrust, especially during the 1970s, when the order appeared to many to take a pronounced leftward tilt. Tensions broke into the open when Pope Paul VI decided that too many of the members were involved in secular matters, including politics, to the detriment of their priesthood. Whenever a papal teaching was questioned, Jesuits always seemed to be in the thick of things, whether the topic was birth control, homosexuality or female priests. Soon after he became Pope, John Paul picked up Paul's refrain, denouncing the order's "regrettable shortcomings."
Whatever willfulness the Pope feared seemed to dissipate with the virtual Vatican takeover in 1981. After John Paul appointed Father Paolo Dezza as acting superior general and Father Giuseppe Pittau as his deputy, "everyone expected a Jesuit revolt," remarks the Rev. John Long, rector of the Jesuits' Russian-studies institute in Rome. When this did not occur, says Long, "the Pope was surprised, and the Vatican Curia was shocked." On the other hand, the Jesuits did not much change their activism but instead adopted a more circumspect profile.
. The administrative leaders of the order who elected Kolvenbach in 1983 wanted him to continue the policies of his predecessor. But Kolvenbach has proved conservative enough, or diplomatic enough, to placate the Pope, even while earning the loyalty of his subordinates. John Paul's warmer attitude was first signaled in 1988, when Kolvenbach was chosen as the preacher for the Vatican Lenten retreat, an honor that was bestowed upon John Paul himself just before he was elected to the Throne of St. Peter. Kolvenbach has been meticulous in carrying out papal directives to the letter, aides say, and he shrewdly picked the Pope's man, Pittau, as his liaison with the Holy See.
Under Arrupe's reign, the society had declared a duty to "show solidarity with all the oppressed and underprivileged everywhere." That commitment was reaffirmed at Kolvenbach's election and again two months ago at a special meeting in Spain of the heads of all 84 Jesuit provinces. Are the Jesuits still too political? "To be human is to be political," responds the order's assistant general, American John O'Callaghan. In any event, Jesuit activism no longer seems to worry John Paul so much, just so long as doctrines supportive of Marxism are eliminated from the society's arsenal of teachings.
Today Jesuit energies are directed at a multitude of causes, from agitating against dictatorships in Africa to championing the cause of India's downtrodden untouchables. The prominence of Jesuits in social change has been underlined in Latin America, where just a year ago six activist Jesuit educators in El Salvador, together with two female helpers, were brutally assassinated. The Jesuit Refugee Service labors with less attention in 75 camps that harbor 1.5 million people. There are also numerous unheralded individual heroes, like Thomas Fitzpatrick, a missionary whose financial acumen helped get food and medicine to the right places during Ethiopia's drought, thereby saving thousands of lives.